184 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



wrung from them their secret. So we doggedly 

 crouched down and watched them, and they watched 

 us. It was diamond cut diamond. But as we felt 

 constrained in our movements, desiring, if possible, 

 to keep so quiet that the birds would, after a while, 

 see in us only two harmless stumps or prostrate logs, 

 we had much the worst of it. The mosquitoes were 

 quite taken with our quiet, and knew us from logs 

 and stumps in a moment. Neither were the birds 

 deceived, not even when we tried the Indian's tac- 

 tics, and plumed ourselves with green branches. 

 Ah, the suspicious creatures, how they watched us 

 with the food in their beaks, abstaining for one 

 whole hour from ministering that precious charge 

 which otherwise would have been visited every mo- 

 ment! Quite near us they would come at times, 

 between us and the nest, eying us so sharply. 

 Then they would move off, and apparently try to 

 forget our presence. Was it to deceive us, or to 

 persuade himself and mate that there was no serious 

 cause for alarm, that the male would now and then 

 strike up in full song and move off to some distance 

 through the trees? But the mother bird did not 

 allow herself to lose sight of us at all, and both 

 birds, after carrying the food in their beaks a long 

 time, would swallow it themselves. Then they 

 would obtain another morsel and apparently approach 

 very near the nest, when their caution or prudence 

 would come to their aid, and they would swallow 

 the food and hasten away. I thought the young 

 birds would cry out, but not a syllable from them. 



